


The Last Straw

by nuritacobarrubias



Category: The 100 (TV)
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-05-21
Updated: 2018-05-30
Packaged: 2019-05-09 18:45:39
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,690
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14721572
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/nuritacobarrubias/pseuds/nuritacobarrubias
Summary: Missing scenes leading us up to the events of 5x04





	1. Chapter 1

Her heavy, weary steps echoed along the final corridors that lead to medical. It was disturbing, how in a supposed overcrowded bunker, such an insignificant and unprecedented thing as her dread could reverberate among the walls so insolently and torment her with its undeniable existence.

  
Throughout her onerous and complex lifetime, Indra had faced myriad of life and death situations such as this. But none had ever felt this unjust, this wrongful...

  
Maybe she was too involved, too biased. She had always made impressive work of compartmentalizing her responsibilities as a head of her clan and the ambivalence leadership inexorably provided. She had willingly sacrificed many aspects of her personal life to support what she believed was right for _Trikru_ and the coalition of _Kongeda_. She had even inevitably contributed to the estrangement between herself and her daughter. Flesh of her flesh, blood of her blood. Not to mention the love of her life...

  
It now all seemed so far away. Like a part of a previous life.

  
Her internal struggled ramblings stopped with the heartbreaking image the entry door invoked. There he was, as she expected. Kane always seized the interval between daytime shifts to check up on Abby.

  
Even from where she was standing she could notice the trembling of the hands on his back and the cold sweat coating Abby’s skin as Kane whispered something to her temple. Kane’s loving and proud expression resounded as tragic to her. She was well aware of what was going on. A woman of few words disposed of a lot of time to become remarkably perceptive.

  
Anxiety.

  
Insomnia.

  
Vivid dreams.

  
Headaches.

  
Dizziness.

  
Nausea.

  
Fatigue.

  
Irritability.

  
Shivers.

  
Soreness.

  
It was ironic how all the symptoms Abby had been showing resembled those of pregnancy. For the first two months in the bunker she had firmly believed Abby was carrying Kane’s child. She firsthand knew that was more than a presumable possibility, judging from the wide variety of sounds she had inadvertently registered coming from the adjoining room in the Polis tower during those healing nine days after that _Skaikru_ chip ordeal. She was convinced all that initial cold alienation time period between them had been partly due to his negation to her death petition and partly to her necessity to assimilate the unexpected possibility of bringing a child to a dreadful place like the bunker of _Wonkru_.

  
But reality was proving to be way worse.

  
Withdrawal within a resource-limited, unmerciful and volatile new society, while being the head of medical was likely a living nightmare.

  
“Kane.” She was tired. She felt like she was constantly interrupting them, but in spite of wanting to grant them some more precious seconds together before it all went downhill, she also knew time was of the essence if she wanted to give them a chance out of this mess alive.

  
Marcus was startled out of their intimate isolation and immediately adopted a full attention disposition when he noticed Indra’s graver than usual demeanour. “Has anything happened?”

  
“No,” she denied categorically. “Come with me.” There was no use in making up excuses; she had always been terse with words. Trying to cover up what was occurring from Abby with delicacy would only attract both their attention. Even Jackson, currently working on his desk, concentrated without merely sparing them a glance.

  
Marcus nodded. But before accompanying her, he fondly rubbed Abby’s shoulders and then cupped her face with his right hand to stare at her intently. “Go eat something,” he managed to both suggest and command with the same level of concern and determination. “Eric.” Kane turned slightly his head to redirect his implicit message to the young doctor.

  
“Of course Marcus,” replied Jackson to guarantee Abby would be taken care of in his absence, despite it being redundant coming from the unwavering, loyal mentee.

  
“I will, I promise,” said Abby with a mixture of annoyance and gratitude in her eyes, tapping on his chest playfully. “Now go.” He smiled at her one more time before following Indra out of medical.

 

.................................................................................................................

 

Indra led Kane to a secluded storage closet. She would never want for this to transcend those four sealed walls. She couldn’t help but observe how the six years had taken its toll on him. He walked like an exhausted, resigned man. She wondered if she mirrored his turbulence somehow. She definitely could relate. They were living in a hell chiselled by the distorted product of their guidance. They both felt responsible for what was happening by allowing it, not being able to talk sense into Octavia anymore. They could usually reach the inherently rebellious, radical girl. But since Lincoln... it had been a sharp descent into darkness, intensified without control with the added pressure of commanding a new teetering coalition of multiple incompatible clans at the edge of, once again, the end of the world.

  
It was too much.

  
“We have a problem,” Indra began, wanting to get to the point, to get off her chest the horrible crisis her friend was about to face, without even realizing she had subconsciously included herself in the subject of the sentence. “It has reached Octavia that medicine has been stolen from medical.”

  
Marcus panicked. “It was me,” he rushed to say without even thinking. His voice didn't even sound his own, constricted as it was.

  
_Abby._

  
_Arena._

  
_Abby._

  
_Arena._

  
_Abby._

  
“Kane.” It was her cautionary tone. But her eyes were telling a different story. Her eyes compelled understanding, empathy, anguish, compassion, support, sadness. She wanted to let him know he could tell the truth, as delicate and dangerous as it was, he could trust her with the fate of the love of his life, because she would never betray them. She wondered if maybe that was what that friendship concept was all about and couldn’t help to feel moved by the overwhelming feeling.

  
“It was me,” he resolutely concluded. His voice had come back. He wasn't trembling anymore. He adopted the stance of a man awaiting his death sentence willingly, without breaking, without showing fear. His probable death being his final act of love and unity. Not confessing was not an option. Not just because of Abby. If by whatever force of destiny, or maybe Octavia’s blindness, Abby wasn’t the prime suspect, then Jackson’s well being was at risk too. All of those who had access to medical were exposed to end up in the arena.

  
And he _knew_ Abby could not take another fatal blow like Jackson’s unfair death because of her.

  
No.

  
The best chance they had was for him to fight for them. He had been chief of the guard back in the Ark, so he had the proper training to, at least, have a chance to survive a round.

  
“I know it was Abby.” Her tone turned softer, matching her demeanour. “I know how hard it is, believe me. But I’m sure somebody else, if not Octavia herself, has noticed Abby’s syndrome by now.” She tried to reason with him. She knew what he had to do. She would do the same. But she couldn’t help to feel defeated by the circumstances.

  
“She won’t be accused without proof. Not if I confess in public.”

  
“Octavia won’t believe that”

  
“I know, but _Blodreina_ won’t have a choice.”

  
A deafening silence reigned in the room for some seconds. The weight of what was happening burdening both of them.

  
Marcus broke the silence. “You have to do something for me,” he shakily said. His eyes begging for her to accept the last thing he would ever ask of her.

  
Indra remained stoic. He took it by what it really was; her acceptance of whatever terms he made.

  
“When the time comes, I need you to lock Abby up in this very room.” He faltered, finding hard to utter the words that were outlining in his mind and contain the tears forming in his eyes. “Please, do it yourself... I...” his voice broke and an excruciating smile formed in his face. “I’m sure when she realizes what’s happening, she will try by all means to confess. I...” He finally cracked and the tears escaped his control. “I need it to be you.”

  
It may not be the first time in her life, but she fought with herself as adamantly as in a combat to remain unperturbed by her torn friend’s petition.

  
She left the room after stating an assuring “I will.”


	2. Chapter 2

Marcus Kane had always been a silent man. He preferred to exert, on all the people around him, the art of observation to the detriment of intervention. He was the kind of keen, sharp and alert person that gained the majority of his imposing power from the knowledge gained from his contemplating skills on character trait considerations.  Perhaps that’s why the outstanding breakthrough of his talent in orating influential words struck himself as particularly and satirically surprising since his against-all-odds arrival to the ground.

So he found himself ineluctably falling back into his comfort zone habit in what he deemed as the probable last minutes of serenity in his life. Half supported by the cold metallic door frame of medical, with his arms crossed and an indecipherable expression on his countenance.

_Watching Abby._

He would forever be watching Abby in silence if he could.

He had for as many years as he could remember.

She was absorbedly working on the task at hand, with her back to the door, apparently unaware of his presence. She swapped the report she was holding to the left hand taking leverage from the supplies shelving, to take the other one to massage steadily her right side temple.

He had harshly grown to perceive that gesture as a hopeful sign that everything was going as it should be. Even though it continuously destroyed him seeing her in any kind of pain, he had already accepted a long time ago within himself that the frightening process of withdrawal was going to be as devastating to witness, as necessary to endure from the countless times they had tried together to fight that invisible devil creeping up on her shoulders.

Despite knowing she had stolen the pills, and that she had dolefully promised - crying against his nude chest holding him like he was the last remaining solid thing in a slow drowning hell – that she would stop taking them for good for the umpteenth time in six years, he couldn’t help but feel an optimistic glimmer of hope, contemplating the fact that she still hadn’t taken one of those yet.

_Hope._

She was at least striving to resist the inescapable pull. She always had.

And he was _so proud_.

He had to hope she would make it this time - with or without him - It was essential and imperative for him to believe.

And he _did_.

In that brief moment of clarity, the eye of the hurricane, he made peace with it all, and his only regret consisted in the possibility of not being there to see her reborn like a phoenix.

That and one more night with her.

“You are not as stealthy as you think you are,” she berated with a fatigued melodic tone of voice. “I can feel your eyes on me. You can relax; Jackson went to get something to eat both for him and for me,” she said as she turned around to face him, immediately noticing from his demeanour something was off.

“You are so beautiful,” he murmured wistfully.

Her eyes widened for a fleeting second and she simultaneously proceeded to shake her head in an unconscious movement of denial, accompanied by a perplexed wry smile. She knew something was wrong, so that was the last thing she had expected to hear in that moment. Furthermore, she was a mess; she carried dark bags under her eyes, her skin was dry and pale, and she couldn’t keep a steady hand for the life of her. She felt disgusting. So when he kept staring at her like she was the yearned rays of sun they hadn’t seen for six years - and most likely never would again - she felt both mad at him and incredibly unworthy of his supreme regard.

He approached her knowing full well the savage initial omens of self-deprecation before they overpowered her. It was brutally demolishing how addiction could turn de almighty to vulnerable so mercilessly, with such vengeance.

He held her sturdily with his whole body and kissed the top of her head, committing the feeling to memory in case this was the last time. The venomous thought made him falter and release a shaky breath.

Concerned, she raised her head to look straight at him.

And time stopped.

She had seen that expression on him before.

Those same pleading eyes in a similar embrace long ago, back at Arkadia.

“Abby,” he implored. He could articulate no more. The supplicating words clogged his throat.

But he needn’t say any more.

They had always communicated better without words.

Her eyes told him she _knew_.

“Kane, it’s time.” Indra’s sudden appearance and anxious voice disrupted their non verbal conversation. “They are coming.” Her eyes were beseeching, trying to cut through him and make him hurry into reason and action.

Abby crushed into ungoverned terror. “What is this,” she demanded clutching his forearms painfully. “Marcus, you are scaring me.” She was indeed beyond frightened, but her horror triggered the old classic Abby mode. Far from letting fear emasculate her and sink into total fragility, it enraged her, gave her an extraordinary kind of strength.

“I'm sorry,” he lamely said, dropping his arms in defeat but keeping his intense gaze on her, even as Indra proceeded to stay true to her promise.

She grabbed Abby with full force of coercion, dragging her drastically out of medical and to her destined captivity. It was remarkable how such a tiny and untrained body could present such seething resistance. “No, no, no, NO. NO. NO. NO!!” She repeated in a nonsense repudiate loop. She was despairingly crying now, her corporal opposition waning gradually due to her despondent mourning.

Marcus could already overhear the distinguishable echo of the guards’ boots advancing.

He snapped.

He couldn't allow an enfeeble apology to be the last thing he ever said to her.

So he pounced on her in an impromptu outburst  

He cupped her face with both hands and kissed her tear brimmed lips. Apart from that little variation, it was almost a reminiscence of their very first kiss. It felt appropriate, that such an epic and ardent love story as theirs should begin and end with a heart-stopping kiss on the verge of his execution.

Full circle.

He postponed letting her go and added soft, rushed little kisses until he couldn't procrastinate the inevitable any more.

“May we meet again.”

Indra's eyes actually got permeated with tears. She felt powerless; she should be able to do something about it. She shouldn't be participating in all that travesty of a justice system. Or at least, she shouldn't be witnessing their farewell kiss while restraining Abby.

Either way, they stood at a point of no return.

“We have to go.” She proceeded to take Abby away from the scene as concurred. She found she couldn't carry her to the storage closet they had set for the occasion - not with the kind of obstinate opposition she was employing - but decided instead to confine her to what seemed like an isolated, vacant bedroom near medical. It was perfect. It was far away from the arena and it was secluded enough that no one could hear her, in case she resorted to scream at the top of her lungs her confession. What Indra didn't know, was that it was also the room Jackson and Abby, as well as the healers and apprentices, used to rest and chill during long shifts at medical. Exactly the place where Abby had her things, including the pills.

Just before she closed the door for good, they both could hear the sealing-fate sentence.

“Marcus Kane, you are under arrest for stealing life-giving medicine of _Wonkru_. You are to see _Blodreina_ and fight for your pardon on the arena.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks again to JaneDoh7 for her amazing beta skills and for interpreting my confusing and awkward sentences.
> 
> And Thanks too for the lovely feedback I got on Chapter 1. It is great to read your thoughts!


End file.
